Sleeper accommodations in transportation are a well known concept that have been widely used on passenger trains, ships and also on aircraft. Nevertheless, the solutions that have been applied, for example on trains, solve the very specific needs existent for this type of vehicle through systems and operational procedures which usually involve complex and cumbersome procedures which require substantial interaction and cooperation of the passengers and the crew in order to perform needed spatial conversions. Concepts, designs and devices used in those contexts are far removed from the solutions presented in this invention.
Despite the differences between train systems and earlier aircraft sleeper accommodation, those earlier systems share a common feature; namely, they require a great deal of crew assistance and necessary passenger cooperation in order to carry out the conversion from seat to sleeper. These earlier systems relied on different technological solutions and fall short in the number of advantages offered by the invention presented herein. Furthermore, earlier systems have been also directed towards a very small, first-class group of air travelers due to the excess of space which those solutions require to provide convertible sleeper accommodations for each passenger.
Commercial aircraft have been constantly evolving in recent decades, attaining very large sizes and ever longer flight ranges. As this happens, passengers find themselves trapped in airplane passenger cabins for ten to fifteen hours at a time, spending full days or nights trying to sleep in a seat that offers little more than a partially reclinable back and at best a leg rest for certain business and first-class travelers. A full array of services has been created around this limitation, aimed at entertaining passengers as well and as long as possible, during long flights, offering everything from in-flight personal movies to unlimited free champagne. In spite of all this, there comes a time after several hours when the only thing most passengers want, and which they usually cannot do, is to lie down in a comfortable, totally horizontal position and fall asleep. Sometimes, business class passengers even go back to tourist class cabins looking for a row of empty seats where they can lie down and stretch out.
Another even more serious consequence of these standard-seat passenger cabin's limitations in regard to long flights, presents itself as a health hazard, as forced upright positions and lack of mobility over long periods of time are known to be a cause of cardiovascular problems among persons with a tendency to develop this type of health condition. At best, even for healthy people, sitting up for hours at a time with little opportunity to move and stretch leads to extreme exhaustion and may represent a potential risk to the later development of health problems related to inadequate flying conditions.
Furthermore, as the number of business travelers increases, more passengers than ever before find themselves stepping off an airplane after sitting awake on a night-long intercontinental flight only to board a taxi and head directly to business appointments after a quick stopover at their hotel. The lack of suitable sleeping accommodations on aircraft is an issue of heightened practical concern.
In recent years, the air transportation industry has been addressing this growing need by providing convertible sleeping accommodations in their first-class cabins comprising over-spaced seats that may recline to a 180.degree. angle giving passengers the opportunity to lie down and rest during long flights. However, because of the space consumption of these alternatives, the cost, and resulting airfare prices, put this approach out of reach for practically all airlines and travelers.
As this need in commercial flying becomes more acute, the time has come to develop a solution that provides all intercontinental and long distance aircraft passengers with the advantage of sleeper accommodations and cabins which are designed in such a manner as to be attractive, comfortable, safe, easy to access and operate, with all the conveniences of modern flying. Above all, these accommodations are designed to permit a truly comfortable, totally reclined position for rest and sleep during flight, at affordable rates and airfare prices for the average air traveler.
An aircraft convertible sleeper cabin concept is presented here which fulfills these characteristics in a design that has the capability to be produced with the latest monocoque modular construction technology, that will permit carriers to convert standard seating passenger cabins in aircraft into advanced design convertible sleeper cabins, rapidly and cost-efficiently. The invention is also applicable for use in newly designed and built aircraft.